Mani Millss: Live For You!

Written by: Maya Perry

“What is for you will always be for you! If it takes a month, 6 months, a year for you to get it... It’s yours. Sometimes we want things when were not ready for them so I encourage patience during your journey. When you reach your goal, you’ll know exactly why it took the time, the losses, and the growth to get there. Being a woman in radio is so powerful, so limitless, know your worth but never stop learning. Never stop growing and being a student in this industry. As we all know there is no manual and there is always something to learn. Believe in yourself always & know that there is nothing you cannot do!” 

Mani Millss is one of the queens of middays in Nashville whose words have not only helped me with my journey and growth in radio but other upcoming women on air as well. 

Mani Millss opens up about her found purpose in radio. “My purpose in radio is to use my platform to allow my voice to be heard. A single mother for 8 years, I’ve faced so many obstacles during my journey but I never gave up.” Her persistence and humility has given her the platform to inspire others; to tell her story and show women how powerful we are, that we can have a family and a career and that nothing is impossible.

Receiving the college nickname “Mani Millss”, she felt it was catchy and fit her brand. “I did a lot in the community to brand myself. I started out throwing my own fashion shows, poetry shows and night events and I went out on a limb and would hostthem myself. I eventually became one of the biggest hosts in the city-- I believe my voice is what got me noticed. I received a call about a midday position and if I was interested. Hell yeah; I thought to myself. With no experience, no idea what all radio entailed, I had a particular confidence that God aligned this perfectly for me and I refused to pass it up. That was Feb 2017 I was hired as a part-time midday talent, here we are two years later... I have been promoted to a full-time music director and midday talent in a much larger market within a two year time frame.”

Mani Millss describes feeling pressured to follow a career path that made the most money growing up, so she pursued pediatrics. At no point during that journey was she happy. She explains if she could give her younger self advice, “I would tell myself not to listen to other people, family included. Everyone has a particular purpose in life and it’s embedded in you from day one. It’s up to you to find it and not let others deter you from what you know is expected of you to give this world. When I look back on my life I have ALWAYS been a personality and I have always wanted to help people. It wasn’t until I decided to live for ME that I truly began living life so that’s what I would encourage my younger self to do... live for YOU.”

Ally Lynn: The Sky Is The Limit

Written by: Sunshine

The road to success is not always easy, but it’s definitely worth it. For this radio personality, her rocky journey gave her the drive to make all her dreams come true.

Alexandria Washington, better known as “Ally Lynn”, is an energetic, outgoing witty radio host and television personality from Little Rock, Arkansas.

Ally’s journey began when she was a student at the University of Alabama. Like many incoming students, Ally was excited about being away from home and enjoying freedom that she let her grades slip causing her to be put on academic probation with a 0.67 GPA.

With the push from a great friend named Laqula Walker, Ally was able to increase her GPA by taking over 20 credit hours per semester and working numerous hours at an ice cream shop at night.

Her friend knew that there was so much more to her, so she urged Ally to try doing radio on campus. Although she never intended on doing radio, it was then that Ally found her calling.

After graduating college in 2013, she moved back home and held down a full time job at Dillard’s and began her professional radio career working for free at Streetz 101.1. From there, she worked for Power 92 Jamz, then became a school teacher and social media reporter for a local news station. From there, she garnered the attention from Harvey at TMZ and was a reporter in Los Angeles. 

After her grandmother’s passing, she then took her talents to Birmingham with New York, where she worked at 95.7 Jamzand it was after a few months there that she was discovered on Instagram by, her now mentor, Ms. Mary K.

Mary K offered Ally a job at 92.7 the Block in Charlotte - she accepted and it was full speed ahead. Ally says she owes a lot of her success to Mary K because she was always willing to help Ally reach the next level. “She never held back, she always helped me, “Ally stated.

In addition to her fruitful radio career, Ally also expanded her brand by making regular appearances on Fox 46 where she served a daily dose of entertainment news during the 8 a.m. morning newscast.

After working for in Charlotte for 7 short months, she was promoted within to Radio One at 107.5 in Detroit, MI.

Throughout her 10-year journey on the radio, Ally has always made it a point to stay true to herself. Since she started, she’s always had a positive spirit that keeps her going even until today.

In an ever changing industry like radio, Ally is sure to remain confident within herself and not let others alter her focus. She’s rebranded herself from Ally The Pub to Ally Lynn to welcome the creative space she’s in with media overall. 

“The competition isn’t the next person, the competition is you,” Ally expressed.

After recently saying her goodbyes to Detroit, Ally is now in the process of working on a syndicated show, which launched August 1 on 105.1 The Block (WALJ-Tuscaloosa) with Townsquare Media on Monday - Friday from 12-6pm.

Adding to her diverse portfolio, she will be launching her own show, The Playhouse, in the United Kingdom through her deal with Radio X. Ally can be heard Monday through Friday beginning August 12 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in London and Manchester alongside her partner in crime mixshow dj, DJ Glory.

And she’s not stopping there, on September15th Ally will premiere her new digital podcast,”At The Table” on YouTube!

She’s very excited about what God has in store for her for the remainder of the year and reminds women in radio to stay the course and “trust the process.”

For Ally, the sky is truly the limit!

Brittany Jade: Giving the People What They Need

Written By: Kristen Ayanah

Brittany Jade is the founder and CEO of Newark.FM. Launched in November 2017 Newark.FM serves as a station for many citizens of Newark, New Jersey. The station provides people with the ability to create their own personal shows or podcast and music from many local and underground artists. 

Jade began her career in television production as opposed to going straight into radio after graduating from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in Communications. While in college, she focused heavily on TV sports recording and wanted to get into sideline reporting. After graduating she landed a job at E! Networks and went on to doing TV post production for many popular shows like The Real Housewives and Love & Hip-Hop. Jade says after a while she began to feel creatively stifled and she began listening heavily to public radio and podcast which lead to the creation of Newark.FM. 

“I’ve always loved radio, since I was a kid, I always had a radio. While growing up, my family and I moved around a lot and the first thing that had to be set up in our new home was my radio.” says Jade. 

Newark.FM’s mission is public radio for all and heavily focuses on the inclusion of people of color. Jade says that when she first started the station, she wanted to create something for the people because she believed that Newark needed more creative spaces. At first the station only played music and then later Jade began adding on-air talent. The music played on Newark.FM is often times different from mainstream stations. Jade wants to highlight different genres and non- mainstream artists to give people a different feel for music. 

“I love being able to program music, that I wouldn’t be able to hear on Power 105.1, WBLS, or Hot 97. I love finding new music and putting people on.” She says. 

Jade’s inspiration in radio would be entrepreneur Cathy Hughes. She believes that Cathy truly pushed through despite any obstacles she has faced and is greatly successful because of it. Cathy founded media company Radio One and is the first black women to head a publicly traded corporation. Some of the things Jade loves about radio is the people she meets because of it and the community aspect of it.  

“The communal aspect. The thought of knowing me and someone else are sharing this too, thousands of listeners.” She says.

Looking back what Jade believes she would of done differently as far as her career would be having some type of radio experience prior to creating Newark.FM. similar to the experiences she had in TV production, interning at multiple TV corporations prior to graduating. She says that she had never been inside an actual radio station prior to Newark.FM or had to deal with external funding for an organization and these were challenges she faced. 

“I learned a lot as I went along and from Google.com.” she states.  

Jade believes that radio today should be more freeform and that there should be more diversity in music and DJ’s. 

When asked what she looks forward to Jade explains that she will be launching an arts education program/workshops in the fall at the Grammy Museum in Newark for younger students as well as adults. These programs will focus on how to get in the music business, DJing, women in music, producing and more!

Overall, Brittany Jade just wants to continue to give back and take strides to represent people of color in radio and creative spaces.

Britt Rose: A Little Extra, But Always Herself!

Written by: Maya Perry

Britt Rose is a syndicated Radio Personality for Rock 2.0&Classic Rock X for Westwood One and afternoon personality for Jet 100.7 & Nash 102.7 at Cumulus Media. 

Her love of tv/entertainment had a big part in her start and choice of on air name. She explains, “Funny Story! A group of my friends and I used to come home after school every day and watch That 70's show. On the show, one of the characters, Donna, was a radio personality. I thought it was cool, and I've loved it ever since I got into it. I chose the name "Britt Rose" because I LOVE the movie Titanic. So, I wanted to be named after Rose from Titanic. In radio school, I went by the name "Halen Rose" for a while. But then I realized I wanted my real name in it too.” 

All of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies. Britt Rose explains, “My brand is to always be yourself. I have always been a little strange, thought outside of the box, and super extra. It's just who I am. I want other people to know they should always be who they are. It is freedom to be yourself fully. I love how my faith in God has allowed me to be someone who has a purpose in life, and a purpose in radio. It's those times that you don't realize you are saying something that could really help someone, relating to the listener emotionally, or just being relatable when they feel alone. Radio is important. It reminds us we are not alone.”

When asked what she would tell her younger self or other inspiring women in radio, she states, “I’m 25, so if I could even go back to when I was 16, I would have focused more on things that get you ahead in life. I wouldn't have partied as much and been so concerned about my social life. I would have focused more on school. I would have trusted in God more that things would end up working out. When you are young, just remember that it seems like you have forever, but you don't. You don't realize how much time you've wasted until you've wasted it. But, I'm proud of myself. I just wanted to point out things that you should focus on. The things that are actually important. Get ahead in life. It will help you tremendously to be focused at a young age. DREAM BIG. The sky is the limit. You are only limited by your mind. If you think you can be the next big thing in the radio world, YOU CAN. It's not just for the lucky. Its faith and belief in what you are doing and who you are. If you don't feel confident, fake it until you make it. Nobody knows the difference. After faking it, you actually WILL be confident. Also, patience has been tough for me. BUT, it is required for the dream. Sometimes it's that very moment that you want to give up that you push yourself, and something great happens for you soon after. NEVER GIVE UP. Keep chasing the dream that is in your heart. Don't let the naysayers get in your way. Pray. Believe. Push. Pursue. Don't give up.”

GiGi Diaz: The Conscious Influencer

Written By: Maya Perry

“I’m a workaholic and it’s easy to be one because I love what I do.”

 GiGi Diaz is a midday queen whose brand is simply described as The Conscious Influencer. GiGi explains, “Essentially my brand has always been one of community outreach and positive influence on all that I touch.” GiGi Diaz received the nickname GiGi since she moved from Cuba. “A friend in middle school started calling me that and I hated it but it stuck. Once I got into TV, which was my first 10 years in communications, people already knew me as GiGi and I figured, if I can’t drop this nickname I’m going to make it work for me! So I kept it and used it on air, opened a business with it, my dance studio GiGi’s Academy which was actually just named Top 3 Dance Studios in Hialeah.”

She describes her first media experience,  “My very first experience in radio was when I was about 16 years old. I was a columnist for a newspaper called En Contacto News, which was distributed in South Florida and I would often go to radio stations to interview the artists since they were already there. Their agents would have me come do the interview on location. I connected with Victor Suave who was the producer of a show called “Escencia de los 80” which translates to Escence of the 80’s. He interviewed me because he saw my hustle at such a young age and taught me a bit of how the board works and what radio is all about. From there I came across Radio Disney while performing with my GiGi’s Academy dancers at a Marlins game on Family Sundays. The PD was there and saw me MCing for the set my dancers were putting on stage and offered me a job in promotions.

Within a few months I was On Air for Radio Disney Miami. Right before Radio Disney Miami closed down I was offered a morning position with SBS where I worked for a while before moving to iHeartRadio. Fast forward to today, it’s like coming full circle since I currently work on 939MIA which is “variety from the 80’s, 90’s and today.”

GiGi’s hard work and persistence has helped her to elevate in this business.

When asked what she would tell her younger self, she states, “I would tell my younger self to stay focused and definitely work hard, BUT to stop and smell the roses once in a while, to be more in the moment. This is something that took me years to learn to do. Follow your heart, work hard, keep your integrity and don’t sacrifice who you are for a position or a title. In the end, when you rest your head at night it’s not the titles, the money or the fame that get to sleep soundly, it’s your peace of mind.”

Ayeeedubb: Don't Be So Afraid - Do It!

Written by: Maya Perry

 Ayeeedubb (aye-dub) is a fun, unique, and creative personality who is taking the radio world by storm!  Ayeeedubb tells a short story on how she came up with her on air name. “My first name is Alexandra, so there is the "ayeeee" part and my last name is Wurst, so the "dub" part. The way it is typed, I just think it looks the best that way. I have not went by any other on air talent name.”

She originally wanted to be a guidance counselor or social worker to help people. But her bright personality and spirit is now lightening up your days on the airwaves.  Ayeeedubb remembers “I had a listener that ended up in a juvenile center and she told me one of the other people in there had a radio and would always listen to the station I was on and she said it made her feel better to just hear me and I had her laughing and just an overall feel good type of feeling and THAT is my purpose for radio.”

Ayeeedubb got her start in radio by being an intern for the hip hop station in Charlotte, Streetz 103.3. “My internship was during my final semester before graduation. I was hustling between classes, two part time jobs, and my college was about an hour away from the radio station. I was busting my tail trying to make it all work! Once I graduated, they called me and offered me a part time on-air and board op position.” She moved to Charlotte with her sister and worked as a part timer while working another job to pay bills. After working part time for three years, Ayeeedubb got her first full time position in Indiana June 2018.

You can now catch Ayeeedubb rocking out nights on Jamz 96.3 in Albany, NY. 

When asked what advice she would tell to aspiring women in radio, she states “my advice for aspiring women in radio is something that my old 7th grade math teacher always said. “People don't remember how you start, but how you finish" So, you can sound messed up, jacked up, have a few slip ups on air, etc. It’s all okay, no one is going to remember those things. As the years go by, you'll get better and you'll definitely improve and you'll be flawless in the radio game. And THAT'S how people will remember you.  I remember being scared to say things or nervous to try new things. If I can move away from family and kill this radio thing and living by myself thing, then honey, I can legit do ANYTHING. ”